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Well, initially we won't be using any other data other than the GUID. I'm scared to ask as it seems so wrong, but would I create a table with just an id column to expand upon at a later date if needed?

However, all sites reference "A brown door with bronze hinges, glazed with Rice Crackers and Cheddar Cheese and then cut in half diagonally." with different codes.

is this the only door you gots?

if you had almost exactly the same door but with brass hinges instead, wouldn't you consider that a different product? with a different product_id?

like i said, if you don't distinguish between different products in your model, then you could sell battleships and kitty litter under the same product_id, even though all your sites would have different codes for that product_id

however, since "door" is only one of "a few hundred product bases" then all doors would have the same product_id even though one's a wooden door and the other's a screen door?

Rewinding a bit - to post 1, you say you have a local guid for each product.

OK, i get that. And it tells me that no matter what, they are all different products. maybe it'll be price or VAT rate but they will be diferent from country to country and those differences will also vary from country to country. (look at how VAT changed in the UK in a different way to any other - as an example).

You may also find that the product in one country may appear to be the same as in another but, it is made from different quality materials and therefore was cheaper to buy in. it may also have a different selling price because of this and may not be on sale throughout all your stores because various other qualities of product replace them. An example of this would be cars throughout the EU. a Merc in Greece used to be a different spec entirely from one in the UK and it was badged the same. Likely had a different local GUID.

such localised changes or rather, the ability to accommodate them, may be lost if you 'over globalise' - meaning your db will become unworkable/unusable.

I would simply add each localised record to a products table like this